U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks during a Security Council meeting on the situation between Britain and Russia, Wednesday, March 14, 2018 at United Nations headquarters. Britain said Wednesday it would expel 23 Russian diplomats and sever high-level bilateral contacts after Russia ignored a deadline to explain how a Soviet-developed nerve agent was used against ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

LONDON (AP) — The latest on the poisoning of a former Russian spy in England (all times local): 10:15 p.m. U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley is calling the assassination attempt against a former Russian agent in southern England part of "an alarming increase" in the use of chemical weapons — and says...

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A Hungarian court has sentenced a Syrian man to seven years in prison after convicting him in a retrial of entering Hungary's illegally and committing an act of terror by throwing rocks at police during a 2015 border riot. Ahmed Hamed had been sentenced to 10 years in...

Gen. John Nicholson, the top American commander in Afghanistan, speaks to reporters Wednesday, March 14, 2018 at Bagram air base north of Kabul, Afghanistan. Nicholson spoke about prospects for peace talks with the Taliban. (AP Photos/Robert Burns)

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AP) — The Afghan capital is now the main focus of the anti-Taliban fight, with U.S. special forces conducting raids in the sprawling city and additional American military advisers arriving to help beleaguered local police, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's state-run oil company has signed a $740 million agreement with a Russian-Iranian consortium to develop two oil fields near the Iraqi border. Under the agreement signed Wednesday, there will be a 48,000-barrel daily production of crude for a 10-year span in oil fields in...

A man works to untangle the national flag flown from the Russian Embassy, after it became entangled on its staff at the embassy in London, Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Britain announced Wednesday it will expel 23 Russian diplomats, the biggest such expulsion since the Cold War, and break off high-level contacts with the Kremlin over the nerve-agent attack on a former spy and his daughter in an English town.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

LONDON (AP) — Relations between Britain and Russia plunged Wednesday to a chill not seen since the Cold War as Prime Minister Theresa May expelled 23 diplomats, severed high-level contacts and vowed both open and covert action against Kremlin meddling after the poisoning of a former spy. Russia...

GENEVA (AP) — The Swiss Foreign Ministry says Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive ex-president of the restive Spanish region of Catalonia, is heading to Switzerland for a private visit. The ministry said Wednesday that Puigdemont is due in Geneva after accepting an invitation from the International...

FILE - In this March 30, 2015 file photo, Professor Stephen Hawking arrives for the Interstellar Live show at the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Hawking, whose brilliant mind ranged across time and space though his body was paralyzed by disease, has died, a family spokesman said early Wednesday, March 14, 2018. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP, File)

LONDON (AP) — Stephen Hawking, whose brilliant mind ranged across time and space though his body was paralyzed by disease, has died. He was 76. Hawking died at his home in Cambridge, England, according to a statement by the University of Cambridge. The best-known theoretical physicist of his time,...

FILE - In this Wednesday, July 21, 1999 file photo Professor Stephen Hawking smiles during a news conference at the University of Potsdam, near Berlin, Germany. Hawking, whose brilliant mind ranged across time and space though his body was paralyzed by disease, has died, a family spokesman said early Wednesday, March 14, 2018.(AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

LONDON (AP) — The Latest on the death of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, whose brilliant mind ranged across time and space though his body was paralyzed by disease (all times local): 4:50 p.m. Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth II has sent a private message of condolence to the family of...

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's government watchdog agency on Wednesday criticized the military's so-called "Hannibal" directive that allowed troops to use heavy force when one of their own was abducted — even at the risk of killing the soldier. The directive, used most recently during the 2014 war in...